Rudi Gernreich ‘Fearless Fashion’ Exhibition Opens in L.A.

The exhibition features more than 60 looks by the L.A. designer, who freed the body in feminist-leaning wool jersey sportswear, imbued his collections with political and social messages, and proposed unisex dressing as the future.

On the heels of the Met Gala’s anything-goes “camp” carpet, which highlighted gender fluidity and freedom of expression to the nth degree, an exhibition has opened in Los Angeles focusing on the social impact and inclusive aesthetic of Sixties-era designer Rudi Gernreich.

Now on view through Sept. 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center, “Fearless Fashion: Rudi Gernreich” fills the museum’s largest gallery with more than 60 looks by the late L.A. designer, a Viennese-born Jew who was ahead of his time in more ways than one, freeing the body in feminist-leaning wool jersey sportswear, imbuing his collections with political and social messages, and proposing unisex dressing as the future.

Rudi Gernreich, Skirball Cultural Center.
Larry Sandez

Organized thematically, the show focuses on the designer’s heyday in the Sixties and Seventies when he was part of a flourishing art community in L.A. that included fellow Austrian refugees, modern architects Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, as well as modern artists Larry Bell and Ed Ruscha.

His design outlook was shaped by his experience fleeing the Nazi regime and facing discrimination as a Jew and as a homosexual, curators Bethany Montagano and Dani Killam theorize, using as evidence clothing culled from local lenders, including Gernreich muse Peggy Moffitt, as well as his paper archives from UCLA. Also included are newly recorded oral histories with Gernreich’s contemporaries and models.

Soon after he landed in L.A. at age 17, Gernreich was entrapped by a police officer and arrested, according to the curators, which led him to become a founding member of early gay rights organization the Mattachine Society. Although he never shared his relationship with longtime partner Oreste Pucciani publicly, believing it would damage his career, he continued to work behind the scenes for equal rights throughout his life, including supporting L.A.’s first African American mayor Tom Bradley and the Equal Rights Amendment for women. After his death, a fund was endowed in his name at the American Civil Liberties Union, which continues to work on behalf of LBGTQ issues.

“Most people had some discrimination and he had none,” said designer Renee Firestone, one of his contemporaries, in her oral history.

Several exhibition pieces are featured on custom flat-footed mannequins in kinetic poses, paying homage to Gernreich’s dedication to movement and free expression, including a “duotard” dance costume for two that may have inspired Thom Browne’s 2008 runway collection of paired-up models wearing three-legged pants.

Gernreich found refuge in dance, performing alongside Bella Lewitzky in the interracial Lester Horton Dance Theater, and the company’s leotards and costumes clearly inspired his future-thinking designs, which over the years included patterned-knit mini dresses with matching Capezio tights; pantsuits before women were even allowed to wear them in restaurants in L.A.; freeform swimwear as early as 1952 when the padded and pushed-up Hollywood bombshell still reigned supreme; unisex caftans for the whole family; thong underwear, and unisex swimsuits that presaged Coachella’s recent “buttchella” craze.

“You can do what you want as long as you are comfortable,” model Barbara Ford remembers Gernreich telling her, noting in her oral history that it was her choice how to wear her makeup and hair for his shows and shoots.

Gernreich’s most famous piece, the controversial 1964 topless bathing suit, or breast-exposing monokini, is styled for the show with a bandeau underneath that has the word “censored” written across it. At the time, critics in Moscow pointed to the bathing suit as the decline of morality in the U.S., the Pope banned it, and at least two American women were arrested for wearing it, but Moffitt always defended it: “Rudi’s aim was to free the breast rather than glorify it sexually,” a quote on the gallery wall reads.

Nearby are two pieces from his 1970 unisex collection, a miniskirt and catsuit created for a Life magazine “Future of Fashion” editorial, and presented on models with shaved heads. On the wall above is a Gernreich quote that predated Billy Porter and Ezra Miller by decades: “The future will involve unisex, men are going to wear skirts and women are going to wear pants.”

There are several of Gerneich’s women’s pants suits on display, including the smashing 1966 “Duke of Windsor” ensemble with a check coat, trousers and funnel neck top, and a 1964 white satin “Marlene Dietrich” evening suit, which had been slated to appear in a Coty Awards runway presentation until organizers deemed it too controversial, according to the curators. (It wasn’t until 1966 that Yves Saint Laurent introduced Le Smoking on the runway.)

Like Saint Laurent (and many Sixties designers), Gernreich was inspired by youth culture, and used to step outside his Santa Monica Boulevard studio just to take in what passersby were wearing. In 1966, he signed a deal for an inexpensive line for Montgomery Ward, democratizing his designs a la Rive Gauche. But his 1971 Resort collection was almost his undoing. Presented just weeks after the Kent State University shooting of unarmed student protesters by the U.S. National Guard, it featured military-inspired clothing accessorized with rifles and dog tags to protest the Vietnam War. “It was a fearful failure and pretty much put a shadow over his career because people couldn’t get over it,” said model Leon Bing in her oral history.

Gernreich continued to design through the Seventies, and expanded his brand into home decor, and even gourmet soup. Since his death in 1985, designers have taken inspiration particularly from his use of unconventional materials, which included dog leashes as belts and metal springs as embellishment.

But his most lasting legacy may be, as Pucciani referred to it accepting a CFDA on Gernreich’s behalf posthumously, “the marriage of ethics and aesthetics.” One wonders what he would have made of the fashion world today, or if it would be here without him.

Social Studies

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Beanie stars in @OliviaWilde's directorial debut "Booksmart," opening today. The film has been dubbed the female "Superbad" — which is somewhat ironic since Beanie is actor Jonah Hill's younger sister. ⁣⁣
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“She is sort of like Paris Geller meets Lisa Simpson with a little bit of Sandra Bullock in ‘Miss Congeniality.’ I liked the idea of showing that a girl can be silly and loose with her friends and also be really intense and kind of biting at school,” Beanie said of her character, Molly.⁣ ⁣
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The actress also said that Wilde’s take on the story is “fresh and honest” and she was “whip-smart” in her directorial debut.⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣⁣
Report: @leighen⁣
📸: @jgreenery
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#wwdeye
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It looks like Kris isn't the only momager in the Kardashian-Jenner family. ⁣
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Kim Kardashian is setting up son Psalm West for success in the fashion, beauty and home sectors — at the ripe old age of two weeks. ⁣
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On May 18, Kardashian filed a trademark for her son for “Psalm West” under her company, Kimsaprincess, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ⁣
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Now all of the West children have trademarks filed under their names. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
Report: @laylailchi
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#wwdfashion⁣
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Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, Kate Moss, and Roger Federer at the Moët & Chandon in France. ⁣
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The intimate dinner celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Brut Imperial blend, at its just-reopened Château de Saran overlooking the vineyards of the Champagne region in the east of France.⁣
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There were fireworks, towering pyramids of Champagne glasses — plus vines and VIPs as far as the eye could see. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report: @fleurfleurette
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#wwdeye
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“If you look at Hollywood — and I’m no saint in this regard — but every single time somebody gets a little bit more famous, they get a little bit thinner, and they get a little bit blonder, and they get a little bit more defined in their face,” Woodley says. ⁣
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“There’s sort of this sense of machinery that can happen to people in the limelight, and I was very fortunate also at a young age to work with so many incredible, strong women who were already a little rebellious in their own ways against the machinery that can be this industry.” ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more.⁣
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Report: @leighen ⁣⁣
Styling: @thealexbadia⁣
📸: @ninebagatelles⁣
Production: @jgreenery⁣
Beauty: @keithcarpenterhair & @tyronmachhausen ⁣
Market: @andrew_shang & @elmercer⁣

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The company will no longer use animal fur in its designs or new products, starting from the spring/summer 2020 women’s collections. ⁣
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Creative director Miuccia Prada explained that the company “is committed to innovation and social responsibility,” and that its fur-free policy “is an extension of that engagement.”⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more.⁣
Report: @luisazargani
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#wwdfashion⁣
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The Argentine athlete, who captains both FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team, has partnered with MGO, a brand portfolio company whose chief creative officer is Tommy Hilfiger’s sister, Ginny Hilfiger, to create Messi.⁣
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The premium lifestyle brand with “a sporty edge” will be primarily men’s wear but will include a few women’s tops as well, according to Hilfiger.⁣
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Hilfiger said despite his fame and wealth, Messi “is a really humble, generous and kind person and a great role model. He has been involved since we started talking to the Messi family two-and-a-half years ago when we presented the idea to them. ⁣
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report:⁣ @jeanpalmieri
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#wwdfashion⁣
#LionelMessi ⁣
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Shailene Woodley is an all-in or not-at-all kind of woman — leading her to get the reputation as the hippie of Hollywood. ⁣
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She views her experience of “breaking out,” if you will, as a kind of shepherding by older, wiser female costars along the way, women she says helped her steel herself against the superficial demands of the industry. ⁣
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One of those women, @reesewitherspoon, spoke to us about Woodley's inspiring performance on "Big Little Lies." “Her portrayal of a woman who is both a survivor of sexual assault and a single mother raising her child alone in a new community is one of the most truthful performances I’ve ever seen. There is a scene in episode two of this season where Jane explains her assault to Ziggy that moves me to tears every time I see it," Witherspoon said. ⁣
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Woodley's acting choices have earned her a reputation for being a talented and utterly professional one to watch, but it’s her candid, unabashed activism in real-life that people are taking notice of. ⁣
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“I think it’s very easy for all of us to be comfortable in our bubbles and to be comfortable in the lives of privilege that a lot of us live, to be comfortable in our own space, in our own opinions, in our own forms of what we think is right or wrong, black and white, justice and non-justice — but ultimately until every single person on this planet feels like they are treated like a proper human being, I’m not going to stop because more than anything, I’m just somebody who deeply feels,” Woodley said.
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Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣
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Report: @leighen ⁣
Styling: @thealexbadia
📸: @ninebagatelles